Big Guys, Big Discounts

Ben BleiweissWednesday, June 25, 2008

ello everyone, and welcome back to Building on a Budget, the column dedicated to building decks that cost 30 tickets or less on Magic Online! This week’s column is the evolution of the Big Guys, Big Discounts deck from two weeks ago. You voted, and here’s the deck that you most wanted to see evolved!

However, you aren’t going to be able to get the curve every game, especially if your opponent is savvy and wants to kill your guys who give discounts. Therefore, I put in a bunch of early spot-removal spells (Incinerate, Oblivion Ring) to stall the beginning of the game. If the game goes long, chances are that your Giants will dwarf (literally) any creatures your opponent can put into play; but you need to survive to that point, so you can’t just roll over and die to Elves / Kithkin / Merfolk without a fight.

One of the key creatures in this deck is ironically the smallest Giant in the deck, Brion Stoutarm. Brion is hyper-efficient as a 4/4 lifelinked creature for four mana, but his second ability (throwing creatures at your opponent) is where it’s at in a Giant deck. Imagine: you play Brion Stoutarm, and follow it with both Hamletback Goliath (6/6) and a Borderland Behemoth (12/12, making your Hamletback Goliath 18/18). Without ever actually needing to attack, you’ve got 30 points of direct damage on the board, with Brion champing at the bit!

Let’s see what happens with the deck when I take it into the casual rooms of Magic Online!

Just a quick note about Game 4: I was entirely willing to play that game out, but my opponent was concerned about how I would portray our match in this column, and so I conceded rather than push that point. Long story short is this: folks, if you’re going to play a deck that’s won a Pro Tour, or Top 8ed a Grand Prix, swapping out 4 to 8 cards for 4 to 8 other high-level tournament cards does not make your deck casual. As for me, I don’t mind a challenge, but the casual play room just doesn’t seem the place for a deck that is comprised of 100% high-tournament playable cards.

Commence discussion in the forums!

As far as the Big Guys, Big Discounts deck goes, Brighthearth Banneret hasn’t been great in this deck. On its own, it’s a 1/1 creature, which isn’t high licks or super kicks. Its reinforce ability is less than optimal in a Giants deck, because A) Giants are already huge on their own, and B) I can’t curve the reinforce ability well with five to seven cost critters. I decide to focus more on monsters, so I take out the Bannerets and the Fatal Frenzys (which have been stuck dead in my hand every game) in favor of three more high-end Giants (Hamletback Goliath, which has been my favorite card to drop so far!), a Borderland Behemoth, a fourth Austere Command, and a fourth Oblivion Ring.

I definitely have the big guys, but now I need more big discounts. I reach deep into my pockets to pull out Coalition Relics, which usually run between 2.5 and 3 tickets each. Relics are the closest thing to running more Stinkdrink Daredevils in that both cost three, and both effectively “produce” two mana, moving me from four mana (the turn after they are played) to six mana (which is Giant territory, baby!) I also have had slight problems getting to double white for Austere Command and Cloudgoat Ranger, so I take out a single Mountain for a Plains.

My initial investments of Brion Stoutarm and Cloudgoat Ranger die to Wrath of God. I then decide to play the “one at a time” strategy, and drop Sunrise Sovereign, burning Doomed Necromancer out of the way with Incinerate in case there were reanimation shenanigans down the road. There were not, and when Deroute empties his hand, I drop Hamletback Goliath and follow it with Cloudgoat Ranger. I stack the +1/+1 counters ability from the Goliath on the stack, and then the Ranger’s “put three creatures into play” ability. The three Kithkin come into play, I tap all three of them to make my Ranger +2/+0, and this allows my Ranger to give an extra two +1/+1 counters to the Hamletback Goliath! I swing in with a 19/19, which is blocked for one turn by a duo of Mirror Entity and True Believer (pumped to 5/5 each) but is lethal the following turn.

Big Guys, Big Discounts was a blast to play, and dominated most creature-based decks I faced. Non-control decks are not equipped to deal with 18/18 tramplers, and multiple times that’s how I ended the game: with a humungous force of Giants that could turn the game from 20 to 0 in just one to two combat phases. The deck is a little weak against weenie decks, though the spot removal helps; I might add in a couple of Pyroclasms if I were going to focus on hosing those decks in particular. Overall though, this was a good deck, and it smashed face... and isn’t that what you want from a Giant deck?